Brussels thought Donald Trump’s exit meant
they were getting an ally in Washington, but, during his first year in the
White House, Biden has proved to be far from the EU's best friend.
When Joe Biden became president of the
United States, Brussels breathed a huge sigh of relief. Gone was the
unpredictable and openly Eurosceptic Donald Trump, and it was a man they could
deal with. The Eurocrats must have thought there could be a return of normality
and cordial relations, based on an ideological meeting of minds and trust. It
has, however, turned out to be anything but.
It is fair to say that the European Union
had a fractious relationship with the Trump administration. There were battles
over trade, finance, and pretty much everything else. Moreover, the president
was an open supporter of Brexit, which no doubt infuriated the Eurocrats.
With Biden, however, they must have
thought that they could put all this behind them. Brussels now had a man they
could deal with in the White House: One who was instinctively in favor of
international bodies like the EU and, unlike his unruly predecessor, prepared
to put the interests of the international community above the interests of the
US.
In some
ways, they have not been disappointed. Biden immediately reversed Trump’s
decision to ditch the Paris climate accord, and he has also backed the EU
in its battle with the UK over the Northern Ireland protocol. However, if the Eurocrats
thought that the ascension of Biden to the presidency meant a return to the
cozy relations that existed before 2016, then they have been sorely
mistaken.
Biden
really began to show his contempt for the EU with his withdrawal from Afghanistan. Indeed, he did not even
bother to inform Brussels in advance of his decision to withdraw American
troops, even though EU member states like Germany, Poland, and Italy had boots
on the ground in the country.
But it is
not only the withdrawal from Afghanistan, it is the consequences that will
follow. European leaders know that Biden’s calamitous scuttle from Kabul
will result in waves of migrants
making their way to the EU. To protect themselves from the oncoming crisis,
walls have begun to appear across the continent, and for that, the EU has Biden
to thank.
The US-EU
relationship took a further downturn with the announcement that Australia would
be scrapping its deal with France to build diesel-powered submarines, and
would, instead, be turning to the US and the UK.
The AUKUS
deal, as it has become known, was a huge blow to the prestige of France, which
stands to lose $37 billion due to the canceled contract. At the time, France’s
foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said, “this brutal,
unilateral and unpredictable decision reminds me a lot of what Mr. Trump used to
do. I am angry and bitter. This isn’t done between allies. It’s really a stab
in the back.” Although Biden later attempted to claim ignorance, the trust had
been broken and the damage had already been done.
With such an unstable partner, the EU has
been looking to forge an independent role in the sphere of defense. Last week,
for example, High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security
Policy Josep Borrell visited the Ukrainian-Russian border. Whilst there, he
demanded that the EU be part of any discussions between the US and Russia.
Borrell said, “we are no longer in the Yalta times,” a reference to the World War II summit were “the big three” – the Soviet Union, UK, and the US
– agreed where their spheres of influence lay.
Nevertheless, with talks taking place this
week in Geneva between the US and Russia regarding the situation in Ukraine,
the EU is not at the top table. The message is clear: The EU is not considered
worthy to sit with the superpowers while they make important strategic
decisions.
The exclusion of the EU will not go
unnoticed in Brussels, and it adds weight to the argument that the bloc
requires a more unified foreign and defense policy, which is
something Borrell has called for in the past.
It is also no coincidence that French
President Emmanuel Macron last week called for an EU-wide
“Strategic Compass” in this area. Macron, whose country now holds the
rotating presidency of the European Council, argued, “it will allow us to
have a common European position at NATO and to act together in a more
coordinated way.”
Macron’s drive for military autonomy,
which will be the precursor of his ultimate ambition of the EU having its own
fully-fledged “army,” has the backing of the Brussels
Eurocrats. The president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, also said that “I believe it
is high time for defense in Europe to move up a gear.”
The renewed impetus for the bolstering of
the EU’s defenses and the drive towards military independence is the fact that
the US is increasingly seen as an unreliable partner. This has been one of the
many unintended consequences of Biden’s botched first year in the Oval Office.
If Brussels thought Biden’s entry into the
White House would herald a new golden era of EU-US relations, then they will have
been massively disappointed with his first year in office. When it comes to
foreign and defense policy, the US president has treated the EU with (some
would say deserved) contempt. Nevertheless, powerful voices within the EU are
now looking for the bloc to chart a more independent course, and wriggle free
of American influence.
Written by
Paul A. Nuttall is a historian, author, and former
politician. He was a Member of the European Parliament between 2009 and 2019
and was a prominent campaigner for Brexit.
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